French car parts group Faurecia invests in U.S. firm PowerSphyr

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PARIS (Reuters) - French car parts company Faurecia (EPED.PA) has made an investment, for an undisclosed sum of money, in U.S. wireless power technology company Powersphyr, in the latest example of car companies striking deals with start-up tech firms.

The Powersphyr deal, announed by the companies on Wednesday, follows a similar move by Faurecia, which is 46-percent owned by Peugeot-maker PSA (PEUP.PA), earlier this year to invest in start-up energy technology company Enogia.

As carmakers ramp up spending on self-driving and electric vehicles (EVs), many investors have been betting that their component suppliers will be the first winners from the technology shifts.

That partly reflects a longer-term change towards more complex vehicles where components makers are contributing an ever-larger proportion of a car’s total value.

It is also an acknowledgement that the big innovations are happening as much in the auto industry’s scattered supply base as in the design hubs of the big carmakers, also known as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).